[Arizona Carolyn]

It does, the reservoir drained... either they use a whole lot of water or it hadn't had a lot of time to fill, because there should be a lot more water behind that dam, it sounds like the engineers are downplaying the whole thing. Dams are a part of life in my part of the country and cracks like that would tell us that they didn't cure properly or used sub-standard cement. Curing these dams is very a delicate matter.

[Howlin]

We don't have many damns like that around here, so I'm not familiar with the process. Thanks for that information, another bit of "matter" I have learned on FR!

[Robert A Cook PE]

you can tell the reservoir never filled - even if it was only a short amount of time - since the vegetation both sides of the dam is still green and intact.

The bottom of a lake becomes mud-covered and dead within days of being submerged; one thing the 'enviro's who want to blow up the hetch-hetchy dam near Yosemite can't figure out; Those pristine valleys that were photographed back before LA and SFO got the water are just empty wastelands now. About as much life and character as Mars.